Pizza Speakeasy

Great New Orleans pop-​up. I also will not write where it is either. If you don’t know somebody who knows how and when to get there, you don’t get to go. But sooner or later you’ll be invited… Headed there tonight — special non-​pizza speakeasy menu. The items listed include roast quail, braised pork chops, watermelon gazpacho & live music performances.

I almost hate that my first review in about six months is yet another good review but I guess I have problems writing bad reviews of places. I want to think that maybe I went somewhere on a bad night and then feel guilty about placing some bad review that could potentially jeopardize someone’s business and livelihood. I’ll try to work on that this time around, but for the meantime, here’s another positive review of a place I love.
I’m going to leave out the fact that this place is walking distance from my house and that I almost always run into friends here because I want to be as impartial as possible. I also almost hate writing this review as this is one of those «best kept secrets» of NOLA that I’d hate to see get overrun with people that suck, but it’s just too hard to find, too much of a wait, and too funky of a place to ever sit right with tourists or the uptown set. Be sure you are familiar with the neighborhood or you will never find it (no sign, no parking lot, no advertisements) and be advised it is on «the other side» of St. Claude from the «cute part» of the Bywater. If you aren’t accustomed to the grittier side of NOLA, then you probably won’t make it from the car to inside without feeling really uncomfortable. My advice: RELAX! Enjoy a different experience for once. Oh, it’s also NOT on Poland. If you reaaaally want to find it and don’t know anyone who can bring you, park near the intersection of Urqhart and Feliciana and be observant or ask around.
My first time there was almost three years ago on my birthday and Helen Gillet happened to be playing that night, which was awesome. The pizza was pretty amazing too. All fresh, locally sourced ingredients and their brick oven results in pizza with a delicate, thin, just perfectly charred on the bottom crust. I am admittedly not a fan of deep dish pizza and Speakeasy comes closest to the East coast style of pizza I prefer. Their beverages are worth having too. The atmosphere is like being invited to someone’s backyard party. You will most likely share a table with people you may or may not know and that’s part of the experience. I’ve met some really great people there. I can’t say I’ve ever had a bad experience.
The drawbacks: only open one day out of the week and not every week. (I don’t want to say more as this place is a REAL speakeasy and I’d hate for it to see a terrible fate like other Bywater businesses I have known and loved.) It also can take quite a while to get your food if you come anytime after 6 pm. Eat a snack beforehand or else you will be famished. If you are in for a wait, there is typically great live music but some people bring cards and games which makes for good conversation starters with the aforementioned strangers sharing your table. Don’t make other plans for afterwards. You may be there for three or four hours so play that night by ear and leave yourself open to spontaneity. It’s also hard to find if you aren’t familiar with the neighborhood and/​or have never been there previously. They also don’t take credit cards. BRING CASH!